grollen
LightNews LightNews
banner
gnot.bsky.social
grollen
@gnot.bsky.social
2.5K followers 6.7K following 3.3K posts
currently reinventing multiple wheels

urban cyclist

poetry, photography, politics & philosophy

cooking & gardening

Cultural Anthropologist

power is always productive.
who is it benefiting? how?
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by grollen
propublica.org
After a college student finally found a treatment that worked for his ulcerative colitis, UnitedHealthcare decided it wouldn’t pay for the costly drugs.

His fight to get coverage exposed the insurer’s hidden procedures for rejecting claims.

(Published Feb. 2023)
UnitedHealthcare Tried to Deny Coverage to a Chronically Ill Patient. He Fought Back, Exposing the Insurer’s Inner Workings.
After a college student finally found a treatment that worked, the insurance giant decided it wouldn’t pay for the costly drugs. His fight to get coverage exposed the insurer’s hidden procedures for r...
www.propublica.org
February 12, 2026 at 2:30 AM
Reposted by grollen
lifeisterrible.bsky.social
i can’t stop laughing
February 15, 2026 at 12:05 AM
Reposted by grollen
joelhs.bsky.social
Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the party supported by JD Vance and Elon Musk, are now looking to ICE in the US for inspiration and saying Germany needs an ICE of its own. www.politico.eu/article/euro...
European far-right parties push for ICE-style police
Fringe figures want to follow the Trump playbook for tackling unauthorized migration.
www.politico.eu
February 15, 2026 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by grollen
indivisiblecville.bsky.social
In solidarity with the people of Minnesota and every community across the country defending each other from ICE, we call on Target to refuse to cooperate with ICE. And until they do, we call for the ongoing BOYCOTT of Target.
#BoycottTarget #ICEoutofMinnesota #AbolishICE #ICEOutForGood #ICEOutNow
This graphic has a red bullseye with a melting ice cube at the center. It says ICE OUT TARGET. BUY NOTHING. STOP EVERYTHING. TARGET COLLABORATES WITH ICE. THEY TARGET OUR COMMUNITIES. SO WE WILL TARGET THEM. BOYCOTT TARGET.
February 10, 2026 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by grollen
anodynesix.bsky.social
"[Victor Manuel] Diaz's autopsy is being performed at the [WBAMC] in Fort Bliss, which doesn't release autopsy reports to the public ... [T]he El Paso Medical Examiner recently ruled a previous detainee's death a homicide, contradicting ICE's contention that [Geraldo Lunas Campos] died by suicide."
harmscommitted.com Harms Committed @harmscommitted.com · 11d
"[M]igrant who died at an El Paso immigration detention center was sent to a military hospital rather than the county medical examiner who investigated two previous deaths at the facility — and concluded that one [..] was a homicide."
#Texas #USA #Incarceration #Deportation #EthnicCleansing #Suicide
After El Paso's ME ruled migrant's death a homicide, ICE sent the next body to an Army hospital
ICE bypassed the county medical examiner in favor of a military facility for the autopsy of a Nicaraguan man and won't release a ruling to the public.
www.texastribune.org
February 7, 2026 at 11:47 PM
Reposted by grollen
geauxgabrielle.bsky.social
- pass a law that requires IDs and passports to vote
- use the State Department to stop passport processing

This is the end of free and fair elections in America.
- pass a law that requires IDs and passports to vote - use the State Department to stop passport processing This is the end of free and fair elections in America.
February 14, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by grollen
cursedpingu.bsky.social
lol this is gonna burst so fucking hard
r/analytics • IOh We just found out our AI has been making up analytics data for 3 months and I'm gonna throw up. Support So we've been using an Al agent since November to answer leadership questions about metrics. It seemed amazing at first fast answers, detailed explanations, everyone loved it. I just found out it's been hallucinating numbers this entire time. Our VP of sales made territory decisions based on data that didn't exist. Our CFO showed the board a deck with fake insights. The Al was just inventing plausible sounding percentages. I only caught it by accident when someone asked me to double check something. I started digging, and holy shit, it's bad.
February 14, 2026 at 11:47 PM
Reposted by grollen
quarks.bsky.social
February 15, 2026 at 12:16 AM
Reposted by grollen
sheeraf.bsky.social
New story up on the Homeland Security Department’s new tactic: flood social media companies with subpoenas to unmask anonymous accounts that criticize ICE or monitor the movements of ICE agents.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...
Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by grollen
atrupar.com
Kristi Noem: "When it gets to Election Day, we've been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country."
February 14, 2026 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by grollen
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
We have no idea where Yglesias got his numbers but they’re wrong. This debate has for so long been plagued by numbers basically pulled out of thin air

Right pic is from my and @adambonica.bsky.social’s response essay: www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
Matthew Yglesias & @mattyglesias X.com 1-2 percentage points is a small number but it's a very big deal. bostonreview.net/forum/how-not-... Adam Bonica and Jake Grumbach claim to find only "small" electoral benefits of moderation, on the order of one to two percentage points. Their subtext is, who could possibly care about an effect of this size? In fact, campaign professionals emphasize to me that this is an enormous effect compared to what you get from spending on campaign ads or mounting field programs to mobilize and turn out voters. A swing of one to two percentage points would have been enough for Hillary Clinton to win in 2016 or for Kamala Harris to win in 2024. Two is a small number, but I don't think that's small change for the world. It's a little bit hard for me to understand what this debate is even supposed to be about given that the skeptics of moderation are willing to concede that both of Trump's election wins were within the bounds of what they say can be plausibly achieved by moderating. To underscore the point: since 2012 there have been seventeen Senate races decided by less than the Bonica-Grumbach margin of moderation. 7:29 AM • 2/3/26 • 14K Views To begin with, Yglesias is way off in claiming that moderation increases a candidate's vote share by "one to two percentage points.' We don't know where he got these numbers, but they aren't in our essay; as our cited graphic shows, the best estimate is less than half a percentage point. He also need not speculate that moderating would have flipped important congressional races — we ran the numbers ourselves and found that moderation would have flipped none of the close House races in 2024. But we're used to seeing incorrect numbers on this subject. In any case, Yglesias's incorrect numbers are not as important as missing the central failures of popularism in recent years. Consider how it has hindered Democrats' leadership on public opinion. G. Elliott Morris is exactly right that trajectories are far more important than what polls say at any given moment. Throughout 2025, as Yglesias was arguing that Democrats shouldn't talk about immigration, the public turned dramatically against Trump on the issue in part due to the leadership of some Democratic leaders like Senator Chris Van Hollen. Now even Trump himself is reportedly "looking to change the subject to his economic agenda as his administration faces growing backlash over his
February 3, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by grollen
andyscollick.bsky.social
Zelenskyy addresses #MSC2026
Munich Security Conference live: Zelenskyy asks leaders if they are ready for Russian aggression and modern war
Russia has shown ‘appetite for aggression’ and possible path for Europe’s future, UK prime minister says
www.theguardian.com
February 14, 2026 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by grollen
lemoustier.bsky.social
🧪🏺 Update - authors have new paper showing how useless gen- #AI is for archaeological illustration.
All 400 images were multiply inaccurate (physically, socially, technologically, environmentally), even with improved prompts.

JUST USE HUMAN EXPERTS & ARTISTS

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
screengran of figure from paper showing four different generated images of a "day in the life of a Neanderthal". All images contain significant inaccuracies from physical characteristics (extremely primitive) to material culture (glass containers), and the lack of women and children is also obvious.
February 13, 2026 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by grollen
onestpress.onestnetwork.com
Rubio speech at MSC—in short: US sees global trade, diplomacy, migration, immigration, global institutions and global affairs in general as a “foolish post-WWII mistake” and invites Europe “so save itself by each protecting sovereignty, closed borders, and Christianity” alike Trump’s America.
February 14, 2026 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by grollen
fishkin.bsky.social
This is a genuinely huge, sweeping victory today for the University of California—or rather, for us, its faculty, acting through our faculty associations, while the UC itself maintained a strict policy of deer-in-headlights silence.

The Trump admin has given up its appeal of a powerful injunction:
Trump administration drops appeal of court order blocking $1.2-billion UCLA settlement
The Trump administration dropped its appeal of a major higher education case in which a federal judge blocked its $1.2-billion settlement proposal to UCLA over alleged civil rights violations. It will...
www.latimes.com
February 14, 2026 at 4:57 AM
Reposted by grollen
hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social
Republicans are about to shut down FEMA, the Coast Guard and TSA in a few hours.

Instead of getting ICE under control this guy is having another meltdown online.

We will never let you steal the midterm election.
February 14, 2026 at 1:08 AM
Reposted by grollen
nathanfrancis79.bsky.social
"Well-informed cynicism is only another mode of conformity."

✒️ #MaxHorkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist, was #BOTD 14 February 1895. #Philosophy
February 14, 2026 at 4:19 AM
Reposted by grollen
alexip718.com
INBOX: Rep. Thomas Massie, who has enraged Trump for his insistence on blocking tariffs and releasing the Epstein files according to the law, just issued what is widely known among Chinese dissidents as "a declaration of no suicidal intent" (不自殺聲明), a sign of extreme distress.
Thomas Massie @RepThomasMassie I am not suicidal. I eat healthy food. The brakes on my car and truck are in good shape. I practice good trigger discipline and never point a gun at anyone, including myself. There are no deep pools of water on my farm and I’m a pretty good swimmer. 2:53 PM · Feb 13, 2026 · 1.5M Views
February 13, 2026 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by grollen
theintercept.com
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: “I was literally begging the agent who was holding me back to let me do CPR,” she told The Intercept.
The Woman Alex Pretti Was Killed Trying to Defend Is an EMT. Federal Agents Stopped Her From Giving First Aid.
One of the women Alex Pretti was killed trying to defend is an EMT. Federal agents stopped her from giving him first aid.
interc.pt
February 13, 2026 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by grollen
jeffjelder.bsky.social
Free buses can pay for themselves in saving wasted dollars on court cases over tiny amounts, reduce costs of enforcement, reduce traffic, increase efficiency because faster on and off, etc.

Leftist fantasy or smart money?

gift article www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...
Opinion | Something Surprising Happens When Bus Rides Are Free
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by grollen
benharris1.bsky.social
Take the lane.
waba.org Washington Area Bicyclist Association @waba.org · 1d
We’ve heard now from several reliable sources that federal agencies may remove a substantial chunk of the 15th St NW protected bike lanes near the National Mall in February, possibly as early as next week.
Federal meddling on 15th Street « Washington Area Bicyclist Association
waba.org
February 14, 2026 at 4:34 AM
Reposted by grollen
pookleblinky.bsky.social
A person who solves a lot of the same kind of problem, with the same kind of solutions, will find their experience *actively working against them* when they encounter a similar-looking problem requiring a different solution.
June 7, 2024 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by grollen
pookleblinky.bsky.social
This is because the better you become at solving a problem, the less you have to think to do it. You know which details to look for, what the important parts are to pay attention to, etc.

You don't have to pay as much attention, or think, as you did that first time.
June 7, 2024 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by grollen
khagolnomy.space
so this will be not much possible for me as i got hills and houses and so forth blocking the view...would have to go somewhere with clear horizon just to see it😣
#astronomy
#astrophotography

(ofc clouds would like to make a visit too probably)
setiinstitute.bsky.social SETI Institute @setiinstitute.bsky.social · 1d
Early Tuesday morning, March 3, a total eclipse of the Moon will be visible from throughout North America.

Board of Trustees member @fraknoi.bsky.social has provided an information sheet to answer your most pressing questions! 🧪 🔭

Read more:
The March 3, 2026 Total Eclipse of the Moon
An Information Sheet by Andrew Fraknoi (U. of San Francisco, Fromm Institute)
www.seti.org
February 14, 2026 at 3:22 AM
Reposted by grollen
meerashar.bsky.social
300 million people protested in India against the pro-corporate, anti-worker, anti-farmer policies of the Modi government.

Unsurprisingly, this has not been reported by the pro-corporate, anti-worker Australian media and scarcely by the Indian media.

#India #ProtestsWork #MSM
Bharat Bandh: 30 crore workers join all-India general strike against labour codes, Centre’s policies
Bharat Bandh today: Workers across India observed a day-long strike on Thursday, protesting government policies they describe as anti-worker and pro-corporate. The strike affected banking, insurance, ...
economictimes.indiatimes.com
February 14, 2026 at 4:33 AM